STUDIO DIARY 2004
or ”how we managed to spend nearly one month farting around and playing computer games in the Far Far North, pt.4”

TUESDAY 28.9.2004

by Henri

Damn, we�re almost ready! There is only one intro, one outro and the album outro left to mix and I�m extremely satisfied with the results thus far. So, dear diary- I think we finally made it!!!!! And now the lame part: Very many of you readers suck. How come? Well, how the HELL could you be so stupid that you actually believed in our ”tracklist”? It was made to piss anyone off, including the internet ”media”, which proves that it�s still nothing but a crappy excuse for so-called journalism (excluding some). Even some Finnish ”medias” believed it, which is the most stupid thing ever. Please, feel free to be embarrassed.

And now for something completely different: actual info for the album called ”Veris�keet”. The album has four actual songs + an outro and will last about 65-70 minutes. The sound is a bit more harsh comparing to our previous efforts, but still extremely epic, even progressive at parts and has some influences of early black metal. I can honestly say that at least we like it very much. And yes, Blabbermouth and co (and all you other cheesy poofs): Here�s the real deal.

MOONSORROW: VERIS�KEET (TBA 2005)

1. Karhunkynsi
2. Haaska
3. Pime�
4. Jotunheim
5. Kaiku

No official translations yet. All music and lyrics by Moonsorrow.

What else? I�m going home!!!!!!!! Yeeeeehaaawwww! A month is enough, you see. Speaking about vision, see you on tour, if we ever do one. Hope you enjoyed this babbling, thanks fellow bandmembers, Ahti, Thyranefolks, Stefan and bros and everyone else. You rule! HAIL US. HAIL THE GODS. AND FUCK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (wasn�t that nice.)

MONDAY 27.9.2004

by Henri

Morjens is now completed! Aggressive as fuck!!!!!!! We�re switching to the last song now and after it�s completed (most likely tomorrow, as it�s a helluva ”package”) we still have countless of bits and pieces to mix to. Work!!!!

SUNDAY 26.9.2004

by Henri

Done is another song, me lads! Sorry for not writing so much right now (do you even care, for fuck�s sake?) but at this part of the process I�m spending the most of the time behind the mixing desk twisting the knobs (!!!!) to assure that the sound is as…um…at least different, hehe. Some call it also mixing. As Ahti politely puts it, ”yep, it�s definitely okey if you like that kind of music.” 😀 Ville is guiding me as a spiritual advisor. Marko left us today, and we�re leaving this place at tuesday for the last time. Hurry hurry hurry, I eat my rice and curry!

SATYRDAY 25.9.2004

by Henri

Blablablabla. This diary is really starting to piss me off. How come no- one else bothers to write this? Buhu!!! Anyway, we�re doing some seriously good sound here. We decided to switch onto the second song of the album after all and it�s going ”into tape” at the moment I�m writing this scheisse. So, one down, XXX to go. And boy it sounds good. One thing is most certainly true- it�s definitely not something you�ll expect. 😉

FRIDAY 24.9.2004

by Henri

Fuck, what a hangover. We drank beer �til 5 a.m. yesterday and had some serious discussions about the band, hehe. Some pre- mixing was also done. Next day please!!!!

THURSDAY 23.9.2004

Hurra! We have FINALLY recorded every vocal outtake. (pisstake?) Anyway, now the shit sounds good and I�m not so worried anymore. Marko came here this morning and recorded also some backing vocals which were far more cooler than mine, hehehe. And now…the mixing starts! We�re working on the third song of the upcoming album at the moment and it sounds promising. No triggered drums, no class and no overproduced shit as we promised. Now we leave Ahti to do some work and head for the ho(s)tel. Beers? Who knows. 😀

WEDNESDAY 22.9.2004

by Ville

Here I am… rocking like a hurricane. Right. I had two hours of sleep behind me so I decided to lay down for a while in the hotel room. Meanwhile Henri started
the studio day by himself (the sneaky bastard had already arrived here yesterday night) with some recorder and accordion takes for ”Outro: Viikset”. In a minute we will listen to the songs and decide if there’s still something to improve. Well, of course there is not since we are perfect. (Yes sir we are! -h- )After all, everything’s recorded in one take, even the multi-track choirs. On to the mix tomorrow, I hope.

by Henri

Hmmm. It seems that I have now recorded every single tone and timbre for the album that was planned to. And after that I banished Ville to the vocal booth
to do some re-takes, hehe. We strive for perfection, you see. 😉 And yes, Ville does a good job indeed. What else?At this point the album appears to me as a complete mess so I really have to clear my head before tomorrow when we start mixing it. And what could be cooler way (except for drinking beer) to do it than watching my favourite tv- series…which is…..*ta-dam*…..STARG�TE!!!!!! 😀 Rulez!!!! So fuck you all anti- nerds out there, I�m outta here.

PS: The new promo of Bloodshed (www.bloodshed.info) kicks butt like a thousand monkeys equipped with razor-sharp steelcaps!!!!!! Get it or die!!!!!!

SATURDAY-FRIDAY, 11-17.9.2004 – Random bullshitting by Ville

Saturday. Another studio day in a terrible hangover. I’m getting used to this. The Swedes accompanied us for an hour, and when they had picked up the least hung over driver amongst themselves they continued their voyage in the north. We recorded some synths again and started singing. By the end of the day we had finished a part of the hangover viking choirs – and since we had more of them to do tomorrow, we would need a new hangover. Shouldn’t be a problem. After another 12-pack per head we headed to Snooker Bar with Jukka (our appreciated sound technician who had also arrived to Kemi to sing with us) and judging by the next day’s looks the others had their plans as well.

Sunday. This morning Mitja was clearly drunk. We’re improving. We caught an amazing feeling on the choirs and completed them all in a few hours. We also recorded ”Outro: Viikset”, which turned out to be a very beautiful and delicate song. Then all those people abandoned us and we were left together with Mitja, and we had no choice than to seek which bars were open on Sundays. Luckily we found one, advertised as ”a meeting place for adult taste”. Expensive beer damnit. Back to the hotel.

Monday. A day off. Extensive Worming with Mitja and then to the grocery store to buy supplies. Magnificent.

Tuesday. I should’ve started to record my vocals, but my throat hurted like hell in the morning. So after two hours of wanking around and solving technical problems I started to sing. Oh yes, I should do that as well. By the end of the day I had recorded vocal tracks on every song and I would listen to them later. Blastmor visited the studio and did his contribution. Back to Worms.

Wednesday. Mitja’s guitar day. I was feeling very sick and didn’t even bother to go to the studio in time, and when I finally got there Mitja was already half way on his rhythm guitar tracks. Magnificent. By the end of the day he had recorded all of them. And since it was Wednesday (disco hell) we had no choice than to get drunk again. Snooker Bar is getting pretty familiar.

Thursday. Patchwork on the vocal tracks. We started with singing a nice duet with Mitja on ”Morjens!” (ya’ll hear that!) and did some further experimenting as well. This would be a hell to mix. I already started to fix the vocal tracks with Ahti so that we would save our nerves during next week.

Friday. We did some fixing on the vocals tracks again and I guess I also tried to record something over. Don’t know if anything of today’s attempts should actually be saved. At least I managed to do my share even if being sick, thanks to mr. Koskenkorva. Mitja recorded his solo and then we listened to the tracks this far. I was talking about Kemi with Ahti, and he said that if you go on the streets in, say, Helsinki, there will be people. Exactly. There would be no one in Kemi for the next four days. Moonsorrow will return to mix the album on Wednesday. Over and out.

FRIDAY 10.9.2004

by Marko

I was away from the studio this week and today it was time to come back with Mitja and Markus. I woke-up at 4.15 a.m. (fuck that!) and somehow we made it to the airport to catch our 6.00 morning flight to Kemi. Mitja hadn’t slept at all last night because he was doing his job all night. Needless to say he was very tired.

In Kemi we went to our hotel and disturbed Henri’s and Ville’s sleep. Henri was fucked up again! So after a few hours in the studio Henri had recorded almost all the keyboards.

After noon Stefan (our webmaster) with his brothers Robert and Tommy came to visit us. They were nice and offered us some Swedish shit beers called Bl� Gul. Well the Swedes never have brewed any good stuff. Actually besides Bathory & Dismember they suck at many things like e.g. in ice-hockey (Mats Sundin my ass!).

We sang some clean vocals also. But then the studio day was suddenly over and it was time to do some shopping. Enormous amounts of beer (TM) was bought from the local store and we got back to the hotel. It was time for serious (or more probably unserious?) drinking!

by Mitja

Luckily the whole hotel was empty from the residents, and even the priest wasn�t there to disturb our traditional ”Drunken Viking Choir” -feast. As expected, things got out of hands pretty early, and we started the Finland vs. Sweden javelin throwing competition, using a fake tree as a javelin. Well, we didn�t do so well in the olympics, but this time we definately beat those swedes. My memories from the evening are kind of hazy, but we had a videocamera running most of the time, and some very funny action was recorded. Among other things we signed an agreement which forbids all homosexual activity between Moonsorrow and Thyrane members.

quote of the day

”It’s always easier to do everything a bit wrong.” – Markus Eur�n

THURSDAY 9.9.2004

by Ville

Dear diary. Wake up at 3:30 makes you tired during the day. I’m in Kemi again and listening to Henri playing acoustic guitars, the accordion and swearing over everything that has gone straight to hell today. You see, it is not our day seemingly. Damn the guy who first introduced the concept of tune – we could do much better without that, thank you. At least Henri made Antonio Banderas himself jealous with his magnificent acoustic guitar solo. Then again, coffee and energy drink don’t help. I have to go to sleep.

WEDNESDAY 8.9.2004

by Henri

Mr. Wednesday was one of the main characters of ”American gods” by Neil Gaiman. Later he turned out to be the one- eyed Oden himself. Not surprising, if you know your mythology. So it�s the day of the High God and the day of my extra guitars. Speaking of which: Every electric guitar part is now laid down, but there are still zillion more things to do with the acoustic one. So, ”work, and work” as they sing in ”At the Car Wash”, which I believe is a disco hit from the seventies. How come someone wants to sing about washing cars anyway? At least we sing about everything cool. 😀 Well, back to work, I guess.

TUESDAY 7.9.2004

by Henri

Well, well, well. Hell? Anyway, I�m back. Didn�t have time to do the diary at the studio today, so I�m writing this nonsense in my hotel room at 0:27 a.m., listening to Otyg. Have you ever noticed how Vintersorg sounds like the Swedish chef from the Muppet Show? Thought so. Speaking of muppets, I visited Norway last weekend. Way too many….err, ethnic minorities, fucking junkies and other scum. However, the metal people I met were extremely nice. Some of them I knew ealier, some not. Anyway, mega hailz to Jarle, Sture and other Windir fellows (+ Eli!), Grutle ”Jeg elsker King Crimson” and Ivar from Enslaved and of course Stig Panzernisse from Wolf�s Lair, who also has booked Moonsorrow to play in Oslo in November. Oppi Fjellet!!!!!

Now what? Came here yesterday evening and had a very boring evening alone, reading a book and listening to music for almost 8 hours. Surprisingly (an another) flight company forgot my synth to Helsinki, which was actually quite good, as I didn�t have to carry that 23 kilos of metal with me as they brought it straight to Tico in the afternoon, hehe. What else? Finished all of my ”basic” rhythm guitars today, so tomorrow will be the day for all my extra guitars + the acoustic guitar helvete. And maybe some synths too, if (and seemingly when) I have time. Did I mention the guitar sound is cool? Very much high end, you see. Blastmor of Thyrane visited me at the hotel room and had some beers while I was doing some observing of demo material of the new album, a.k.a. ”how the Hel was it supposed to play??????”

Right now I should do some ready-presets-to-use for tomorrow�s studio with my analog synth I dragged into the hotel, but I�m not sure if I bother. Instead I could drink some soda, listen to …In the Woods�magnificent and excellent Heart of the Ages- album and read an interesting book about a political stand called concervatism. Then again, I could go to sleep.

You never know.

FRIDAY-MONDAY, 3-6.9.2004 – A couple of days off

by Ville

Friday. Henri left Kemi yesterday and left me and Marko drinking, resulting to Marko waking up in a terrible hangover and moving to the shower and me going to have a morning beer with this Blastmor guy. After all, we had no studio for today. The morning beer kinda stretched over the whole day when Marko and Avather joined us, and after two different bars and Avather’s place we found ourselves from two different bars again. Kemi nightlife extravaganza! Not that it would have anything to do with music, but then again, what has? At least not this diary.

Saturday. My turn to wake up in a terrible hangover. Marko rented a video, and as also the other TV in the hotel hallway seemed to be out of use (Did I tell you that someone had stolen the other TV and the other fridge while we were in Helsinki!? It must be the priest, damn him.) he went to Avather’s place to watch it. I didn’t. In the evening we had a sauna session with some cool Kemi people and watched how FINLAND DEFEATED SWEDEN 4-4 in the ice-hockey World Cup. But 4-4 is a draw, you say. I say don’t stick to details. 😉 After the match we went to Snooker Bar to see a band called The Lunatics. It was insanely brilliant, even though their drummer was from Turku. I can’t describe how insanely brilliant it was actually. Check it out at www.thelunatics.org – and do it now! Otherwise you don’t have my permission to read this diary further. (And if you don’t want to read this diary, now is your chance to escape! Yay!)

Sunday. Boredom. We left the hotel with Marko and eventually found something to eat in a place called ”Stadin Chili & Kebab”. Of course it doesn’t say anything to foreigners, but a Finnish person might find something strange in the title… I mean, ”Stadin Chili & Kebab”, come on. Our train was leaving at 6 so we packed our stuff, played a few rounds of Worms and left. At the Oulu airport we found out that our Thursday’s studio diary had became quite widespread and discussed in the internet. Absolute brilliance! Vapauttakaa Matti Nyk�nen!

Monday. Tough luck: back to reality. Henri will be back in the studio about now.

THURSDAY 2.9.2004 – Kankkusen paluu

by Henri

Gr�����������h. I hadn�t drunk a single sip of beer (unlike the others, hehe) during the whole journey so yesterday I decided that maybe it�s party time after all. And now? What a freakin� hangover. My head explodes, I�m thirsty as fuck and my body hurts. Last night we drank shitloads of beer, listened to Dead Kennedys and Anaal Nathrakh with full volume and later I even got into a fight with a local metalhead. Sadly the bar bouncers rushed to stop the situation so I couldn� t hurt the guy as badly as he had deserved it. Well, what the fuck, I�m still so tough and rough and blablabla. Then we went to disco (!!!!) to drink more beer and talked about going fishing with Avather next week. Should rule! Anyway, we have now decided to publish the tracklist of ”Raah Raah Bl��h” officially. As you folks propably know, this album is going to be a bit different release, as we thought not repeating ourselves musically and lyrically. So, no more overlenghty boring songs and epic shit, but some seriously pure aggression, hate and even some politics. (!!!!) Some of you might think it�s not acceptable for taking a step forward (backward?) but might I remind you that it is us who decide the direction of the band, not you. Live with it or start listening to �kercocke. So, here we go!

We are going to put some samples or even one full song from the album for You to download later, so stay in tune! Remember to check out www.moonsorrow.com every now and then. What else? Back to the diary, oh yes. Mazel Tow!!!!
So, Marko is recording his 12- stringed acoustic for ”Morjens!!!!” and Ville is playing rally with PS2. I�m frustrated with this shitdiary and suffering. Today I will travel home for leaving it again tomorrow as we are going to play the Windir- tribute gig with Finntroll in Oslo. I�ll return to Helsinki at sunday and will be back in business at tuesday, when I start the incredible electric guitar- jamboree at 10 a.m. Wish me luck, fuckers!!!!! Now I think I need to take a crap……again. O_o

WEDNESDAY 1.9.2004

by Henri

The bass sounds is still convincing. Ville has now completed two songs in two hours while the omnipresent shadow of the self-proclaimed producer (that would be me, folks! 😉 haunts him between every note played. Avather of Thyrane just marched in and bummed a cigarette. Bollocks! Right now I�m listening to Flotsam and Jetsam from Snakenet Metal Radio which is not so good music, at least accompanied with Marko�s jamming with his 12- string. What else? Oh, we�re almost two days ahead from the schedule, because Marko and Ville played so well. Which is nice, because Ahti told us that he has to leave at friday to mix live sound for that crappy power metal shit known as Sonata Arctica for the whole weekend. Hmmm……maybe I was too hard. Yep, I take some of my words back. They�re definitely not metal, haha. Well, Henkka is a cool guy indeed.

…and by Ville

Yeah! The bass is on tape… hard drive after ca. 6 hours of intensive playing and spontaneous arranging. And besides the distorted sound also the ”night club” bass sound, which was basically created with turning all knobs to zero, is just great if you ask Ahti. He is already starting to be concerned about our mental health and ability of hearing. Promising. Marko is tuning his 12-string and will soon start to record something, whereas I think I might be joining Avather in his private PS2 tournament. Tonight there’s the already-traditional disco hell in our hotel, so after the 12-string takes we have to equip ourselves with 12-packs on our way back and challenge the volume with some Anaal Nathrakh and loud cursing when we hit each others’ worms.

TUESDAY 31.8.2004

by Ville

The day started with Marko knocking on Henri’s door, as usual, a voyage to the nearby grocery store and dragging our exhausted bodies over the plains of Kemi to the Tico Tico Studio, where Ahti was waiting for us with his motorcycle. After breakfast Marko started to play the drums and by the end of the day he had all the songs on tape…hard drive. The takes were a fine combination of Henri’s philosophy of ”retarded beats” and my advice of ”playing like, you know, well” and thus sounded very good and best when we listened to them in their full glory. And the blast beats, oh yes, they hath returned. Beware you… Worms!

…and by Marko

Hello you homo Hitlers! As the mighty El�kel�iset once stated. My work with the drums started pretty well except I got the flu from the boys in the band. This has nothing to do with any manly romanticism or anything like that. Anyway I started playing the easier songs first yesterday but today in the morning I wasn’t satisfied at all with the result so I beated the whole album through today. Fucking invalid retard beats this time, so fuck off all the self-centered musicians out there, hah! I guess I’ve deserved a couple of Lapin Kultas tonight as I know I’m not going to record a single note tomorrow. Hell, I’ve all day time to play PS2 WRC2 Extreme and Tekken 4. The best thing being in studio! Although Worms is unbeatable game I’d think. Right now Ville is setting up his gear and the almighty Randall Kommander Bass head. Sounds brutal! I guess we will soon end this studio day and go back to hotel. Over and out. Raah!

…and by Henri

H�pla! Just had to add that Ahti just told that he likes Ville�s bass sound as much as he just loves the snare, and thinks that the mighty 5- stringed terrorizer driven through that trusty 80�s R.B. K�mmander sounds like ”someone ripping a car plate”. This certainly proves that we�re heading into a good direction. 😉

MONDAY 30.8.2004

by Henri

Dear reader. Did you really think we�d let the flight company to survive with this unjustice? Never. You just simply do not fuck with Don Henu nor with his friends, not mention a band 😉 After a nourishing breakfast at the Tico I grabbed my new cool mobile phone and started to call to the ”broken luggage section” of the flight company. Which I managed to reach, after a couple of unanswered calls. So, I told them what happened and they confirmed it from their computer. And then, enter the problems. The guy told me that I have to do a written reclamation which they will handle as soon as they have time, propably two weeks or so. I said ”Two weeks?????? I can do that written reclamation of the broken case and that�s not so acute, but with the broken guitar, no way, I�m a musician, blababla, studio started one hour ago, blablabla, your company has broken my fucking work-equipment and I have no money and I REALLY NEED A GUITAR FOR TOMORROW”. And guess what? It helped! The guy at the office said that of course they are utterly sorry and try to help me as much as they can, and if the situation was really this bad they will give me a permission to get a new guitar from a store – and they pay it!!!!! So, I went to a music store, got a new and better guitar than my old one was 😀 and walked out with a BIG smile in my face. And I was going to buy a new guitar anyway sooner or later early next year, hehe. They even let me to keep the old one, of which�s broken neck I�ll just replace whenever I have time at home After all, although my old guitar was crappy, old, and a kinda cheesy and cheaper Ibanez, it still, believe it or not, had some serious emotional value for this oversensitive fat bastard. A million thanks to Kemin Musiikki and the flight company (of whose name I don�t bother to reveal as they were so nice to me after all) for the new supercool jetblack Ibanez I now own. I love it!!!!!!!

…and by Ville

And what did we do in the studio? Belive it or not, we found the perfect drum sounds! Especially the snare, which, after half an hour of serious tuning, became something that Ahti really really fell in love with. I think he’s going to use it on every album he records from now on. Or maybe not. He just might get used to the sound with time, I guess 😀 We recorded two test takes (two songs = thirty minutes) with the drums and suddenly the day was over. Did we really spend so much time setting up the drums, finding the sounds (ehm, the perfect sounds), drinking coffee and talking shit? I guess we did. Heading to the hotel to play Worms… for 7 hours.

SUNDAY 29.8.2004

by Henri

Studio! I love working in a studio, especially in Tico-Tico. So no wonder I, and of course all the rest of us too, were pretty much excited to finally, after months of hard preparation, record our newest album which is still titled as ”Raah Raah Bl��h” for You out there. Hehehe. Now where was I again? Oh, the plan was easy for the day:

1) Gather your stuff and make it to the airport
2) Check in, and drag your ass to the plane
3) Enjoy bad coffee and a dry cupcake, try to survive to the Oulu airport
4) Gather your stuff and make it to the train to Kemi.

Now, everything seemed to be fine. Until the part three, which kinda blew everything. You see, the plane was very full, so I suppose the cargo guys were nice enough to err….compact our stuff to fit into a smaller space at the Helsinki side. So, instead of one electric guitar I got two halves! How nice of them! I guess they also tried to save some space by completely exploding my acoustic guitar�s case and Ville�s bass case, which we now find extremely good for lighting a fireplace but no use for carrying anything in them. Needless to say, we were quite pissed off. So, we marched into the information desk with that destroyed stuff and did of course an official reclamation of the luggage handling. Well, things happen, people die. Luckily my acoustic guitar was, for some reason completely unknown to me, in totally mint condition even if 1/3 of the case was utterly destroyed. Anyway, after half an hour spent in the desk everything was finally ”officialized” and we noticed that we didn�t make it to the train. What�s next? Well, a bus of course! Hurra! We had some kebab at a local T�rkie-place and headed to the bus station in a still kinda pissed off state, trying to scratch some humour out of what happened (but with quite lame results). Bought some Fisherman�s Friends and the newest number of Hunting and Fishing magazine and marched into the bus. Avather of Thyrane was greeting us at the Kemi bus station, helping us the carry the luggage and he even promised to lend me a guitar for tomorrow�s demo guitar sessions. Thanks, bro!!!!!!! Then we met Ahti, took every instrument into the studio and finally walked to the hotel Hullu Pohjola, of whose inhabitants are always oh so pleased to see us. Did I tell you that the last time they tried to send us a 100 € bill for non-existent ”cleaning costs” after we left? I told them to fuck off, hehe. The rest of the evening was spent by playing Worms World Party (sic) and mumbling curses to the flight company. There still was a decent fear hidden in my cortex, reminding me constantly of the thought ”what if the flight company won�t refund our gear”. We headed into bunks after 5 hours of intensive gaming, ready to get some decent sleep after the pretty rough day.